Christian poetry & essays about one woman's faith walk.

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Today’s poetry offering stems from a very real prayer between my heart and God’s ear recently. As the attitude in our country becomes more and more “non-Christian” I realize how precious the freedom to choose the God I worship is to me. If faced with denying God or losing my life I believe I am a Christian strong enough to choose Him through the end. If faced with denying God or my child’s life ending my confidence is shaken. I am her mother. My job is to nurture her into a young woman whose faith chooses God. Some costs are greater than our own lives. How about you? What shakes your confidence?

It’s an uneasy feeling that arrives
When I think of facing the decision,
Either denounce You and live or
Claim You as God and die.
I hope I can face that and do You proud,
Speaking Your name clear and loud.

Giving You my own life’s final breath
I believe I can do that without wavering,
My spouse and child will understand,
But there’s a weaker spot they can reach.
I pray it’s one I never have to face,
For it’s one of a very different race.

What if Lord, they threaten my child?
Even knowing they most likely will lie,
Promising her life if I deny You,
Will I, as her mother, be able to not go wild?
Will I proclaim You are the Lord God Almighty?
Refuse to deny You are God for all eternity?

How did You stand back God, when man,
Came dragging Jesus off for false charges?
How did You keep Yourself from stopping them?
These leaders of false teaching and corrupt man?
Only You could be that brave and right,
To assure us the chance to see His light.

Our children come home asking,
“What does this word mean?”,
And the label is vile and vulgar,
You can’t ignore the question,
And answering is one of those
“Square your shoulders and be an adult” moments,
And our children look as if struck by ten ton beams,
Someone called them “that”? “Why?”

You realize, again, how useless are platitudes,
“Sticks and stones… Words will never hurt me.”
Wrong! Worthless as saying,
“It doesn’t matter we know the truth.”
But 99 out of 100 kids at school?
They believe this lie that morphs into
A life of its own before the 3:00 bell,
And how useless is it to say, “Let it be”?
Or talking to the school?

Anti-bullying policies may be tough on paper,
But the underbelly of them reeks,
Teachers can’t be there every second,
Police can’t monitor every social media site,
Friends have to go home sometime,
Self-defense only gets everyone in trouble,
Every temporary plug eventually leaks,
Being bullied hurts us all the way through.

So we’re left with why it happens,
And here’s the truth, we teach it.
Yes, we do, we create lies instead of accept facts in life,
We exaggerate mistakes to make ourselves look better,
We fight to have our rights, regardless.
We spread gossip like fertilizer,
We’re quick to protest rather than sit,
And examine the truth.

We don’t want it to be what it is but it is,
Because we have taught them,
Demand tolerance for your differences,
But don’t tolerate someone else’s.
Claim every privilege and blessing as your right,
And never, ever yield to the greater good,
Above all else pretend not to keep score but win,
This is the truth of bullying.

Until we teach everyone something different,
This is only going to worsen,
Fester like an untreated infection
Covered with pretty bandages,
Eased pain with misused medicine or pot,
While we dance around the issues,
Blame Hollywood for the cursin’,
But truth is that bullying starts at home.
-dfav 1/31/17

The memories slice right to my heart,
Reminding me of a separate time,
When I believed myself to be,
A woman who’d cast her own part.
Who stood up and saw the prize,
Bent will to work and determined win,
Daily gave only my absolute best,
Shoved forth the smile, left behind the sighs.
I believed she was who You meant me to be,
Assisting those whose greater work,
Was to save “at-risk youths” and family,
Help them healthy in mind and spirit be.
Though Your name could not be freely spoke,
It mattered little if we but kept them well,
Surely someone else would plant Your seed,
We would certainly break burdensome yokes.
Yet I see now between those pictured memories,
How wrong to do good for good’s sake alone!
I offered hope of merely man kinds hand,
Not of You Lord, who would have set them free.
dfav 1/19/17

Thank You Abba Father, for adoption.
For this way that helped us be a forever family.
Thank You Lord for every successful adoption story,
For each one brings You honor and glory.

Thank You Father for caseworkers, attorneys and courts,
For each has a job to do in each individual case.
Thank You Almighty, for each precious child,
For each tear they shed, the shy and the wild.

Thank You Jehovah, for each adoptive parent who exists,
Who opened their hearts and stepped up to care.
Thank You Abba Father, for biological parents too.
Those who gave willingly and those who had to be made to do.

Thank You Lord, for the system, though it may not always work.
Its intention is noble, it’s purpose for good.
Thank You Almighty, the I Am, for the example You gave,
By willingly adopting us the way has been paved.

Most of all Abba, thank You for my precious child,
Who calls me “Mama” and was born in my heart.
Though parenting isn’t simple or easy always,
You’ve given us what we need each and every day.
-dav 11/22/12. Revised 11/30/16.

When the needs are great,
Resources far too small,
You may want to run,
But, you’re up against a wall,
Everything in you is stretched,
This mountain too tall.
But, you can’t give up yet,
Have you given Jesus a call?
Time to be absolutely honest,
This can turn good after all.
This day claim your victory,
As on your knees you fall,
Pray on without ceasing,
Let it ring through the hall.
Then should the worse happen,
Rest assured at that wall,
A door or window will open,
God having answered your call.
dfav 9/9/16

O little one there is much I can teach you,
What love looks like,
What entrapment feels like.
What Christ looked like grave defeated!
Love feels like restored,
At the price unable to be counted.

So come quickly now and share God’s love.
The love that will have endured,
The love that has sin’s cost covered.
Come share the love for one another,
The love of husbands and wives,
The love of friends in our lives.
But, yes, O yes, share that of Christ who will never die.—Donna. dfav 5/22/16

Satan had me bound,
By chains I couldn’t see,
God’s love made them visible,
And He rescued me.
Rising from the irons,
I knew salvation free,
Thought life perfect now,
Discounted my humanity.
After a while I learned,
Sins chains still threatened me,
They could restrain me falsely,
Without the Holy Trinity.
Throughout each day,
God must help me be,
A sinner saved by grace,
That He has forever freed.
dfav 4/6/16— Donna